CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
The need for the presence of parents in a child’s life cannot be over emphasized as it goes a long way in ensuring the academic achievement of the student’s in school. Parents presence tends to influence the performance of their children or wards in school either positively or negatively. Separation of parents and the resulting emotional instability in the home are likely to affect the academic achievement of their children. Recent research has shown that separation of parents occur when relationship between the parents had broken down or because of migration of either parents, from one geographical location to another i.e not staying within the same geographical location.
Bong (2008), showed that parents had little or no relationship with their children especially when they were young. Some children have both parents living together while in some homes, children lived with only their mothers or their fathers or even care takers or care givers or guardians as a result of the separation of their parents. Fathers separate from their children earlier and for longer periods than mothers, mostly because of a breakdown of relationship with the mothers. But separation could also be due to migration, death and abandonment.
However, migration seems to be one of the main reasons why mothers leave their children. They could also separated from their children for financial reasons and sometimes in these circumstances, the child might either be given to someone with better resources or left in the care of someone while they seek work elsewhere. The mothers too may leave the home because of breakdown in relationship with fathers.
Winston (2009), said "It would be the ideal situation to have both parents in the home, but often, this is not the case but there is nothing that can be done about it, as there are factors such as migration, death, and breakdown of relationships to consider,". Same problems emanated from parental separation which could lead to frustration, isolation of children and sometimes the students may be forced to exhibit temper tantrums while in the classrooms. The students anger, sadness and frustrated may justify the way they behave because the children hope that after they must have returned from school and wishes to play, no one would be available to play with them, in addition to periods of sadness and behavioural problems, parental separation could also contribute to changes in academic performance and success for secondary school students.
Parental separation tends to affect the development of children of which educational development is inclusive. However, the academic achievement of students could be attributed to the influence of both parents. A lot of outstanding members of society have come from singled parent homes and even from foster homes where no parents were present.
    
Since parental separation has an influence on the academic performance of adolescents, it is advisable that parents should sit down with their child and break the news about the separation if there be need. It has been noted that parental separation may result into a divorce and it becomes hard on the whole family. Hence the need for every member of the family to get used to the change in the family dynamic, as well as children coming to terms with the fact that mum and dad aren’t together anymore.
The restructuring of families that occurs after a separation requires several adjustments for children, according to the Early Childhood Australia website. Transitioning between homes, especially homes where children are exposed to a lot of parental conflict, can be particularly detrimental. For example, if an adolescent goes back and forth between homes and must also listen to parents fighting or talking negatively about one another, it can cause the child lesser time to do homework and study. Newly separated parents might ask adolescents and teens to pitch in around the house more often, such as babysitting younger siblings, which also gets in the way of studying. Problems might also be so distracting that the child isn't able to concentrate and pay attention at school.
A separation might mean the child has to move and enroll in a new school. This change in routine can interfere with a child's ability to concentrate in class and do his best in school work. In fact, this instability can impair developmental growth in general. According to a 2007 article published in "American Sociological Review." Many adolescents tend to pull away from their parents during a separation. Pickhardt (2009), opines that if there be a separation from parents, a child might not want to approach parents for comfort or to discuss the transitions, leaving him without a support system as he navigates his new school and tries to do his schoolwork.
Children who experience two drastic transitions during childhood, such as parents separation and move to a new school, tends to get lower grades and score lower on achievement tests than children who have no such transitions or only one transition. Among adolescents, just one such major transition raises the risk that the child will drop out of school, the same journal reports. Most children of separated or divorced parents live with their mothers, which can be especially hard on boys who need a father figure. Boys who have fathers who continue spending enough time with them tend to get better grades than boys with absent fathers.